What Does Liberty Look Like?

This is the first post in the ongoing What Does Liberty Look Like series.

In a recent email with friends I mentioned that, “it is not so clear to me that the government having the power to tell people and hospitals what surgeries they can have and when they can have them—even during an emergency—is a good thing for preserving both life and liberty for everyone in the long run.” Then added:

The growth of government and the restrictions on liberty–in other words a greater turning away from the biblical mandate for government to assist our work of carrying out the great commission and preparing the world as the dwelling place for God with man (I’m sorry, there is no room in the Bible for the government to build roads, provide welfare, etc.)–have largely come in fits and spurts associated with crises. 

In response, I received several questions:

Where in Scripture do we see this kind of thinking on display among God’s people? Do Jesus or Paul or Peter (in the NT) or Abraham or Daniel (in the OT) articulate this “biblical mandate”? It seems to me that those who are writing God’s inerrant word under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit are mostly agnostic on whatever government happens to be in place at the time.

Can you help me understand what you mean, when you say, “…the biblical mandate for government to assist our work of carrying out the great commission and preparing the world as the dwelling place for God with man…”  

Did God mandate government assistance in the Great Commission? Has God said that the work of the church, with government assistance, is to prepare the world for Christ’s return? Maybe I am missing something, but my understanding is we are called to proclaim the gospel, and make disciples. My understanding of government’s role is to preserve the peace, so the gospel can be preached, but working, together with the church, to somehow prepare a place for God to dwell, is news to me.

My general thesis for answering these questions is that all men and women in every role, vocation, and relationship they are in are bound to serve God’s will by the fact they were created by God and that everything they have is owned by God:

You shall have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3 ESV).

The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all (Psalm 103:19 ESV).

Forever, O LORD, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. Your faithfulness endures to all generations; you have established the earth, and it stands fast. By your appointment they stand this day, for all things are your servants (Psalm 119:89–91 ESV).

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me (Matthew 28:18).

For [Christ] must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” (1 Corinthians 15:25–27 ESV).

All are under Christ’s authority as Ruler of this world. And all are subject to obeying Him and His commandments. This applies to earthly rulers as well, be they kings, presidents, governors, legislators, or bureaucrats:

Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. (Psalm 2:10–12 ESV)

Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good (Romans 13:3-4).

One can find many Christian expositors who point to Romans 13 as saying that Christians should submit to governing authorities. But fewer expositors of Romans 13 go on to explain the clear implication that all rulers—Christians or not—are obligated to obey God and serve His will as His servants.

I would agree that “those who are writing God’s inerrant word under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit are mostly agnostic on whatever government happens to be in place at the time” for the simple reason that all governments of whatever form are to submit to God. Has God said that the work of the church, with government assistance, is to prepare the world for Christ’s return? Absolutely, in the sense God mandated every human inside and outside of government to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion …” Just because someone is not a believer does not give them an out.

There are a lot more details to come in answering these questions that I will explore in future posts. In the next one, since Christ came “to set at liberty those who are oppressed,” we are going to start with Luke 4 and Isaiah 61.